Thursday, April 10, 2008

I am Lapidary but not Eristic...

...when I use big words. -W.F. Buckley Jr.
William F. Buckley Jr. was famous for his large vocabulary and penchant for using the precise word conveying his thoughts, even if that word was not one in common usage.
I've had several occasions to think on Bill and his love of words recently with his passing, and then I was pleasantly surprised by James Taranto's use of the word "synecdoche" in a recent column. (How many times can you work "synecdoche" into a conversation?)
It sent me running for my dictionary to verify its meaning ( a fairly rare occurrence for me), and oddly enough, sent me running to update my "favorite sites" blog roll as well.

I didn't think to put Best of the Web on my "favorite sites" since I read him daily in my email. But, I do highly recommend him! ( one sesquipedalian to another!)

Oh, and in case you were wondering:
syn·ec·do·che : Pronunciation Key -[si-nek-duh-kee]
–noun Rhetoric.
a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.

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